#like in the Agdon longscarf fight

[incorrect-upon-a-witchlight]

Gideon: The risk I took was calculated but, man, am I bad at math.

[wearykatie]

Journey Into the Wild Beyond

Chapter 2: Hither (Part 2)

There’s a thing that happens sometimes when running tabletop games: railroading. In a plot-driven game, Game Masters/Dungeon Masters need to get the party to follow the plot somehow. Unlike in video games, tabletop games don’t have quest logs and map markers telling you where to go and what to do. I know I previously talked about “I want to go there”, and I wholeheartedly believe in and support that idea, but for the sake of keeping games from being endless wandering, you need to have a clear goal with reminders for the party. 

On the other hand, if you do this too often or present only a single way forward, the players can feel like they’re being railroaded down a non-branching path where their choices don’t matter. This is a tricky balance to maintain. So how do we do it? 

Spider-Sense

In addition to the dreams that each player would experience in proximity to their lost item, any player who had a lost item in the current zone would feel a magnetic pull or sorts. They would know which direction their item was in and maybe an approximate distance. This is mostly from the book. How to keep them from going straight there and ending the chapter in a single session? 

Well, Hither has a neat built-in way. The item is with the hag, the hag is in the town of Downfall, and the most convenient way to enter Downfall is through Brigand’s Tollway, occupied by the harengon brigands and their leader, Agdon Longscarf. But, the party learned that someone had recently been to Downfall and gotten out…mostly safely. 

A goblin named Jingle Jangle had stolen a key from the hag’s cottage, but the brigands had stolen a bag of truffles from her and beat her up on the way back. She would know a way in. Jingle Jangle was a bit odd though. A hermit who once had a deep fear of finding herself on the wrong side of a locked door. Bavlorna removed that fear, but replaced it with an obsession with collecting keys and a dulled sense of self. Jingle Jangle only refers to herself in the third person. 

The party went to Telemy Hill, a living hill where the goblin made her home. The hill was concerned about Jingle Jangle (who hadn’t left her cave in days) and let the party know it through two living trees who Hakewood named Treech and Trong. 

I have exactly the players I deserve. 

When they met with Jingle Jangle, the party got the information they needed through talking and through kindness. They offered her food and talked with her for a while. I started noting things like this because I wanted it to pay off at some point. If the players were going to show kindness, make friends, and attempt non-violence, then they would be rewarded for it.

And it wouldn’t be long before they surprised me again.

Hareraiser

Jingle Jangle gave the party a map with a relatively safe path through Brigand’s Tollway. There were still harengon brigands about, but at least they wouldn’t be marching right through their camp. Time for stealth checks! 

DM’s Bane #413: Pass Without a Trace

If you’re unfamiliar, Pass Without a Trace is a spell that gives +10 to stealth checks to any ally within a 30 foot radius. I believe it was Artie who cast this on the party as they entered Brigand’s Tollway, and it lasted for one hour. The harengons only had a passive perception of 14, so as long as the stealth rolls were at least 5 or higher even without a modifier, they would pass. 

The final check was at a chokepoint to get into Downfall and Agdon Longscarf was there with his 16 passive perception. Confrontation time! Agdon tried to shake them down for everything they had. This is a badass bandit who has been stealing from people all over Hither and giving their stuff to the hag. Clearly a fight was going to happen. 

They offered him friendship. 

This isn’t a D&D campaign, this is a preschool cartoon. 

Okay, I’d let them try to do some convincing and then set a high DC (Difficulty Class), because Agdon wasn’t entirely unreasonable. He hated the hags as much as anyone. The party made Persuasion checks and succeeded. 

You know, that was a cool encounter where Agdon would be running around at high speed, hitting the players, and doing some hefty damage. The best way to stop him would be to grab the end of his scarf and hold him in place, at which point he would surrender in a panic because he doesn’t like being trapped. 

Well, I guess the party has some bandit friends now. 

How Can We Screw This Up More? 

Downfall was pretty straight forward. There was a path around a central bog with a large three story cottage on stilts. Along the way, they party met an elf without a heart (theirs was taken by Bavlorna in another deal gone wrong), found reanimated heads of deceased frog kings displayed on pikes, and the current ruler of the frog people, a puppet king who reluctantly served the hag. He allowed the party to pass through to the cottage because they had found the hag’s book - Bavlorna’s Big Book of Bad Blood. 

As a joke, I had one of the king’s men take the party to the dock where they were introduced to a luxury boat known as the Royal Skiff. After being told of all of its features, the frog pointed them to the boat they would actually be taking, a rickety row boat that looked like it was about to sink.

They didn’t even hesitate to steal the Royal Skiff. I didn’t penalize them for that because that was absolutely the correct call. 

So, I’ve mentioned frog people, or bullywugs. These were prevalent throughout Downfall, as well as a giant toad, and Hakewood himself kept a pet toad familiar under his hat. I say this because Rhin’s player wrote in a character quirk that Rhin was afraid of frogs and toads. This is about to be really funny, but first, a dungeon crawl. 

In one of the first rooms of the cottage, the party found sewing supplies and pincushion dolls. One of the dolls had four arms - similar to the arms that grabbed Ana in Elora’s dream at the start of the chapter. She grabbed this doll, filled her alchemy jug with oil, lit the oil, and held the doll over it for a Batman-style interrogation. 

I hated that the doll was just a mundane doll and not actually alive or linked to anyone, because that was hilarious.

You Did What to the Gelatinous Cube? 

In the previous part I mentioned having an idea brewing in response to Elora trying to do some science on living mud creatures in the middle of battle. Now, I’ve got a party full of magic school students. An alchemist, a wizard, a cleric, a druid, and a fighter. Their different classes and backgrounds would give them unique sets of skills, and if they wanted to take a non-confrontational approach to the campaign, I could allow them to use these skills to do some off the wall stuff. 

So when they found a clogged up well in the cottage feeding a small wading pool, they started doing some science. Elora determined that what little water there was had a slight acidic quality to it. The others noticed the well was full of water but it didn’t seem to be moving. Artie made a check with all of this information and figured out there was a gelatinous cube in the well. 

If you haven't seen one of these, it’s like a 10 foot cube of acid jello. 

The players began asking if they could neutralize the gelatinous cube by introducing a base because science. Artie piped up that he had some mushrooms because he’s a Circle of Spores druid and into growing mushrooms. Reasoning that mushrooms are alkaline, that could act as a base and–

Me: “Hang on, let me think about what that would actually do.”  Players: “Bases neutralize acids, so–” Me: “No, I know. I’m trying to figure out what it would do to a gelatinous cube.” 

Yeah, weirdly, they don’t cover this in the Monster Manual or the Dungeon Master’s Guide, so I was left to make a ruling on my own. Now, the obvious answer is this is a magical creature who does acid damage and a handful of mushrooms aren’t going to do anything to it, so just have the cube attack the players and do a long boring combat. 

But I want to reward this creativity and have silly solutions to problems in my campaign, so they toss the mushrooms into the well. A moment later, the gelatinous cube rises out of it, partially dissolving into water and looking as angry as jello can look. The party ran upstairs and left that little surprise for someone else. 

The Line Has Been Toad

On the way through the cottage, the party had a look at that Big Book of Bad Blood. It’s basically Bavlorna’s “burn book” where she talks about how much she hates everyone. The party discovered one entry had been erased and replaced with Zybilna’s entry. The replaced entry was faded and difficult to make out, but with some investigating, they were able to determine it said “Natasha”. 

That becomes important later. 

For now, the party is ready to confront their first hag. I decided that barring extraordinary circumstances, there would be no getting around the hag fights. These were Chaotic Evil hags who had done horrible things. There was no bargaining, they needed to die. Bavlorna was paranoid, wouldn’t listen to the party’s attempts to get her to stand down, and she felt cornered by the way they were circling her. 

Fight time. And I discovered a massive flaw in the encounter design right away. Yeah, Bavlorna has a pretty big weakness in that she can be slightly nerfed by someone running “widdershins” around her (counter clockwise) which induces a sneezing fit to prevent her from doing some of her moves, but she has minions who attack three times per turn. A party member almost went down right there. The encounter, allegedly, is doable at level 2 or 3. The party was level 4 and it almost went bad for them. 

Eventually, Bavlorna fell, musing that her sister Endelyn was wrong - it wasn’t Elora’s sister who would be the downfall of the Hourglass Coven. 

With Bavlorna dead, Rhin felt a stronger pull, leading her upstairs to the attic and a room with a giant brass toad statue that acted as an pocket dimension. 

I swear, that’s straight from the book. I had forgotten all about that container when I assigned Rhin’s missing item to Bavlorna. Rhin, the one with the fear of frogs and toads. But, she pushed through her fear, reached inside, and pulled out a rosary with a raven’s skull on it. 

A vision showed Rhin the same scene as her dream, only she remembers things differently now. She joined the widower in his prayers to the earth and offered him comfort. She discovers a drive to revolutionize how funerals and burial rights are done, offering cheap and creative ways to honor the dead and respect the traditions of them and the loved ones they leave behind. 

The rosary itself, named Eternity’s Canvas, would be a legendary item for Rhin that would grant her a feat and a couple of special abilities. I wanted these recovered items to be special, and this was the first. 

Rhin was kind of a mortuary student at Magewood Academy. Her player decided to flavor the goblin ability Fury of the Small as Rhin's familiarity with anatomy helping her deal extra damage. And since Rhin's player and I are both fans of Caitlin Doughty/Ask a Mortician (I think fae may have introduced me to that channel actually), I themed Rhin's rosary and restored creativity around that.

The rest of the party saw a portrait that confirmed the appearances of the other hags, as well as another - a human woman with dark hair whose name was scratched off of the name plate and whose face had been torn off the portrait. They had the four armed Endelyn Moongrave and the doll-like Skabatha Nightshade left to find.

Hither, Thither, and Yon

With the first hag defeated and the first item recovered, I had pretty effectively communicated what the players could look forward to for the rest of the game. They knew the stakes, they knew the rewards, they knew what was expected of them. Now they were off to the next land, Thither, but first they had a few stops to make. I’ll roll all of that together in the next part.

[whowaswillow]

Backstory

After the passing of the late Ophelia Tempest Minyu (a previous character of mine). Tinbal  the Harengon uncovered an unfinished work. (Tinbal was the NPC lackey of our previous campaign)

The work he found was The Epic of Tinbal the author  was listed as Tempest .The story detailed the adventures of a group of mercenaries led by a simple Harengon. Who knows how he was able to control gravity, use a crossbow, and build magic constructs but he was a real Jack of all trades. His lackeys were lackluster to say the least. 

A man who never took off his armor who was convinced he could see the future.

A goblin whose only character trait was their big... wrench. 

An elf who refused to get a dirty. 

A fairy who spent all his time watching other people fight  but never engaging. 

And a bard who did nothing but write instead of play music.

What was the author thinking this cast of characters makes no sense at all!

But Tinbal never spoke of them in detail. Except for Ophelia. Though her name was spread through the kingdom of Anywhere as a hero, those who met her in the swamp had a different recollection. The cruelest king they ever had. Her infamy long out lived her. Even just uttering her name was like a curse to the older population. There was never another true king after her. Tinbal still called himself her royal advisor but the  toad kingdom respected him as their king in secret. 

Eventually Tasha and Lord Vandrin came back to the swamp. While trade routes were set and Vandrin was given power over the swamp he only requested that they respected Ophelia’s original decree to learn common, learn to farm, and embrace the arts.  Tasha aided in cleaning up the mess her sister made by blessing the once cursed breeding pools. 

As years passed Tinbal was just as famous as Agdon longscarf. He had all the power he could have wanted . Tinbal even invited other harengon to live in the swamp and soon it was a thriving society once again. He got married and had a couple of kids just as the remaining bullywugs did. 

One day one of Tinbal’s daughters fell in love with one of the sons of the Royal Tailor.  They took to the breeding pools on their wedding night as is tradition. They did not think it would actually result in a child. But Tasha’s magic was potent. 

Soon there was a child both Harengon and Bullywug. With tall ears, buck teeth, and a small rotund form Willowdart of Festerblight was born. The Epic was passed down through Tinbal’s lineage. So she received the unfinished book. 

She, like those before her, tried to push her grandfather, Tinbal to find out more about his younger days. But it was to no avail. At this point he was senile and claimed “the story lied” “that he never fought” “there were robots” “there were gods playing with mortals” “ Ophelia was human not a witch!” And snails oh , how he feared the snails. Any questions asked would lead him into a spiral of tears and rage. 

Willowdart was different though from those before her. She was the first of her lineage to be able read common with full comprehension and appreciation for the arts. It was obvious to her that the bard was none other than Ophelia the Duke of ich… King Ophelia the Terrible…the hero of the fairies. Not only that but the scaredy cat fairy is Lord Vandrin! There was more to this unfinished epic than Tinbal would admit. He would speak one truth to Willowdart: the author is no longer in the faewilds nor are they fae. 

Willowdart made the decision to visit the mortal realm. To seek out this Tempest. The author must surely have more information. It was a stretch to say the least. Though she was curious about the mystery surrounding her grandfather she also just wanted to go on an adventure just as he had.  Even if she doesn’t  find the author in the great big mortal world she will be satisfied returning with more stories. 

———————

When Willowdart came to the mortal realm she knew she needed to blend in. She kept her ears flat and under a hood and hoped no one would notice she has five webbed fingers on each hand instead of 3. Or her more prominent buck teeth that she kept hidden under a scarf. Many mistook her for a full blood bullywug or a fat grung. So she kept  it that way. 

When she asked locals about where she could find Tempest many told her to wait on the beach and a tempest would show up eventually. Little did she realize they meant a great storm. 

That’s exactly what Willowdart found her self trapped in . A great swirling vortex was headed her way. Fog creeped in around her. Within the fog the great old one spoke to her and promised her knowledge of all things . 

—— 

That was 8 months ago. WillowDart now lives as a nomad in the local swamp. It’s about time for her to get up and move again. After all the immortal snail is chasing her. 

[complete-idiot-in-love]

Once Upon a Witchlight: Episode 46 (SPOILERS AHEAD)

This episode was SO DAMN ROUGH, BE WARNED GUYS!! LITERALLY ALMOST CRIED FROM IT FR FR

I'M NEVER GOING TO EMOTIONALLY RECOVER

OH NO, TECHNICAL ISSUES WITH THE BEAN FOOTAGE

Haha Andy and Gary Goodberry! Yes!!

ANDY GOT ROASTED BY GARY

Gary has had four wives confirmed /j

Andy is so gender, like bro give me some fr fr

Hootsie plush is so cute

Andy get off ya phone, Nikkie is DMing /j

Blue roses? Like the ones in Twig’s eyes?

OH FUCK, THERES A JABBERWOCK STATUE

Blue and red roses mixing together? I wonder what that's for

Jabberwocky vs Jabberwock debate, personally I don't care which they say cause it's literally a one letter difference.

These dudes can do either so much in one in-game day or absolutely nothing in one in-game day, no in-between lmao.

“Torbek feels bad about eating all those cookies now” Bro don’t feel bad, she practically force-fed ya like five of ‘em

I love Nikkie’s cool ass leather jacket this episode, girlboss fr fr

Torbek has IBS, that's totally something he'd have with how much of a garbage disposal he is, bro eats rubber hoses, feathers, dirt, literal trash water, basically anything he can get ahold of and expects nothing bad to happen

GRICKO STOP, IF TORBEK PUKES I'M GONNA PUKE FR FR (I HATE PUKING SOUNDS)

Frosty totally is a weird trick or treater, bro gets excited over black licorice and math

Old man frosty needs his glasses to read, such an old man

“This must be what Gricko feels like all the time” BUUUUURRRRRRNNNNN!!!!

Torbek can't read (T-T) I would definitely read to him :(

I bet money that the Vorpal sword is the one Skabatha wrote about in the wanted poster for that “Billy of the feywild” guy

WE NEED A HERSHEY PARK ONESHOT FR FR

Gideon being coaxed to try and rip the sword from the stone is so funny, i'm surprised they didn't call him a bitch lmao

Vandalizing private property is more important to Kremy then the multiple times they've ALL done indecent exposure

Father divorce arc 2: electric boogaloo /j

Torbek drinks water like a dog, bro just sticks his whole face in it

YOOOOOOOO NAT 20 FOR PULLING THE SWORD OUT OF THE FOUNTAIN YEEEEEES

My fire dad is so cool!!

“Im not afraid of this” Famous last words from Gricko considering what i’ve heard happens at the end of the episode

Torbek back at it again with the “alleged” public masturbation charges

Polycule watches Gideon masturbate and have done it before /j these dudes are so dumb, but I love em

My S/I would be grossed out at the idea though

Take “getting head” to a whole new level /j

Andy’s hair is so gender, I wish I had hair half as good as his fr fr

When they all started singing kiss from a rose I legitimately choked on my pomegranate seeds because it caught me so off guard

Gideon ranting about final fantasy is so funny because i can see my S/I being like “What the fuck are you talking about, Gid?”

ANOTHER NAT 20, GIDEON IS REALLY PUTTING THE FIRE IN FIRE GENASI THESE PAST FEW EPISODES

OH GOD, THE FOUNTAIN IS CUMMING ITSELF AFTER LOSING ITS HEAD

PUT YOUR PANTS BACK ON GIDEON

“Help me guhlump” Suggestive Kremy + Gideon moment

ANOTHER NAT 20??????? OMFG

Richie doing the “Okay, Okay” to Nikkie is SO DAMN FUNNY, TWINS FR FR

Gricko chasing Torbek around with the Jabberwock head is so family coded

TRY PAINTING THE ROSE ON THE SWORD PURPLE FOR GODS SAKE

I love it when Torbek gets all smart and talks with big words

B&E is a family activity, They all take my S/I for their first crime and end up at an ice cream parlor

Gricko is a good dad, so supportive of Hootsie and all her stuff

Kingdom hearts reference yessss

Torbek once again references Agdon Longscarf again with the whole “Take it from Torbek, you can't get red out of blue” thing

Ooooo, who's the little girl???

SHE'S PLAYING WITH KNIGHTS MADE OF METAL, GLASS, WOOD, CLAY AND BONE!!! THAT'S THEIR THINGS FROM THE BEAN FOOTAGE!!!! ALSO SHE'S HAVING THEM FIGHT A STUFFED JABBERWOCK?? FORESHADOWING???

Ah yes Kremy, insult the mysterious child to her face

SHE'S SO CUTE, I LOVE MORGANA (Persona 5 reference???)

She’s sus tho, why is she in the desert??

Gricko… Hootsie would absolutely destroy the toys, don't let her play w them

Gideon being very brutal to the poor girl >:(

Her grandmother doesn't want her to see the prince anymore??? VERY SUS

Torbek making friends is nice :)

OH MY GOD SHE KILLED GIDEON, HE'S A MARIONETTE TOO

SHE TURNED TORBEK INTO WOODY, WE GOT TWO SOUTHERN MEN NOW

Keep the snake in your pants Torbek, please

OH GOD SHE’S TURNING EVERYONE INTO DIFFERENT THINGS

CHUCKLES IS BACK, YAAAAAAAAA YYY!!!!

Torbek stepped on his “snake” lmao

FROSTY’S A MIME YESS, TWO CLOWNS!! NOW ALL WE NEED IS KREMY TO BE SOMETHING AND THE WHOLE FAM WILL BE TRANSFORMED

Also my S/I would be freaking TF out about everyone being turned into weird things, like three seconds away from a mental breakdown freaked out

Derek is too good at being a mime, bro really has 100+ different skills

KREMY AND GRICKO, STOP BEING MEAN TO THE BABY GIRL

MACHO MAN GIDEON SAVAGE!!

TRANSFORM MY ALLIGATOR DAD MORGANA, MAKE HIM SUFFER

MR. POTATO HEAD KREMY WITH A BROOKLYN ACCENT LMAO

OH FUCK, SHE KILLED CHUCKLES

Kremy shitting out a new mustache and new top hat made me literally choke

PRINCESS GOBLINETTE!!!!

She's changing mime frost, i really liked that one 

Torbek lost his damn snake omfg

If I was also changed, I’d want to be a squishmallow fr fr. I love those fuckin things

FROST IS A KEN DOLL, OMFG SHE'S HAD KENOUGH

YAY BRET’S BACK!!!!

“Let's find out, can you open your ass?” HHSHSHSHSAHAHAHAA YESSS

Bret’s house and Torbek’s “snake” is in Kremy’s house lmao

“It's hiiiiiiiiiiigh time we come up with a plan” OVERWATCH REFERENCE FROM TORBEK??

I love goblinette so much, mikey does such a funny girl voice

Twig has her eyes back!

“Whattya think fellas, we whack grandma?” MOBSTER POTATO KREMY LMAOOOOO

Has Twig always been a puppet??? Or is Morgana just being a lil silly and thinking OUR Twig is HER Twig cause she’s a BROWNIE!!

Gideon and Torbek immediately trying to summon Bullyjugs is so damn funny, fuckin pervs! /j

Torbek being shoulder deep in Kremy’s ass lmao “There ain't no eyeballs in this ass!”

Chaotic polycule fr fr, I love these goofy bitches

IS MORGANA TASHA? NIKKIE SAID “You cannot see that boy anymore Ta- I mean Morgana, you cannot see him!” AND SHE HAS SISTERS LIKE THE FOUR HAGS AND IS THE BABY!!

I really like cowboy Torbek, He is very funny and the accent is really nice

TWIG IS A PERSON, NOBODY OWNS HER >:(

YAY, TWIG IS COMING WITH DA PARTY!

“Make like a tree and get da fuck out of here” HA

OH FUCK, WE’RE IN AN HOURGLASS AND NIKKIE IS USING HER BAVLORNA VOICE (I don’t think its Bavlorna though) WE’RE GONNA GET CRUSHED BY SAND

OH FUCK, THE JABBERWOCK

The Jabberwock figure looks so cool!!!! Whoever painted it did a really good job

NATURAL 20 FOR INITIATIVE FROM GIDEON!! SOMEBODY CHECK HIS DICE FR FR /J

“I'm last with a 13” Nah Andy, I rolled a damn 12 with a +0 so I’M last (I like to roll for shits n giggles uwu)

NAT 20 FOR KREMY ON A DEX SAVE AGAINST THE JABBERWOCK (I rolled a 16)

HOOTSIE GOT A NAT 20 TOO!!!!

38 POINTS OF DAMAGE TO ANYONE WHO GOT A 17 OR LESS??? BRO I’D ALREADY BE DEAD (My constitution is 17 with a modifier of +3, idk if I’d actually be dead but it would be hella funny to imagine I take one attack and boom I’m dead)

I think at max, I’d have 43 health so while alive I’d be VERY HURT (5 health remaining)

FROST AND I ARE ALREADY DEAD AND GRICKO IS CLOSE BEHIND, BRO WE’RE FUCKED

Why the hell does it want the chess pieces????

Good idea using cure wounds on Frost, he’s waaay too OP to let die.

Frost using magic circle on Fey creatures just gives me a funny/sad idea of since satyrs are technically fey creatures, my S/I being left for dead outside the circle with the Jabberwock by accident.

DAD N0000000, GIDEON DIED!!!

TWO AUTO DEATH FAILS FOR GID NOOOOOOO

*Ominous jazz starts playing* I love my alligator dad

“Come get me ya big bitch” Kremy protecting his family!!!

JDDJSJJSDDJ (T-T) TORBEK TRYING TO REASON WITH IT MAKES ME SO SAAAAAD, PROTECT THAT MAN AT ALL COST FR FR

GIDEON FUCKIN DIED

KREMY NOOOOOO, BOTH MY DADS AND I ARE DEAD

GRICKO IS TRYING TO SAVE HIS DAUGHTER AND TELLING HER TO RUN AHAHAAAAAAAA (T-T)

FROST TRYING TO STOP IT AND HE'S CRYING, THE MAN WHO NEVER SHOWS EMOTION IS CRYING

BEATING TORBEK WITH KREMY’S DEAD BODY, WHY NIKKIE WHY???

KREMY FUCKIN DIED, IM SO SAD

TORBEK IS TRYING TO GET GOREBEK OUT TO PROTECT HIS FAMILY, HAHASASHFKSHFN (T-T)

WE’RE ALL SO FUCKED MAN, SO DAMN FUCKED

TORBEK IS DEAD, NOOOOOOO MY GIRLFAILURE BESTIE!!!!

“Torbek burbled in his pants” “I heard they do that” ANDY, GIDEON STOP TALKIN BOUT DEAD PEOPLE SHITTING THEMSELVES

DON’T YOU DARE KILL HOOTSIE NIKKIE, I SWEAR TO THE GODS

GRICKO GOT A NAT 20 BUT NIKKIE DREADED IT

HOOTSIE GOT A NAT 1 AND GOT FUCKIN KILLED, MY HEART NOOOOOO

WE’RE ALL SO DEAD

THE JABBERWOCK KILLED ALL OF US AND TOOK OUR COMMUNICATORS, WHAT A DICK

Nikkie is gonna rip Mace’s iPad in half haha /j

[wearykatie]

The Journey Into the Wild Beyond

Chapter 2: Hither (Part 1)

On arrival in Prismeer, the party is dumped in Hither, one of three lands divided by thick layers of fog that make travel between them extremely difficult. This was an alien world to the player characters, and it’s my first chance to really dive into Feywild things.

Down the Rabbit Hole

I had to separate Elora from the party for this part to one, resolve the nightmare she rolled in the previous chapter, and two, to introduce a character. 

Let’s get to the nightmare first. In it, Elora is back home with her sister, Ana’leth. Ana keeps looking through Elora’s room for something Elora lost but doesn’t say what it is. It’s then she notices an ominous wardrobe at the back of the room that doesn’t belong. When Ana approaches it, it opens and four skeletal hands grab her and pull her inside. 

When Elora wakes, she’s greeted by a blue harengon (a type of rabbit folk in D&D) by the name of Alice. 

You won’t find Alice in The Wild Beyond the Witchlight because she’s a character I made specifically for this campaign. The book does provide guides who can take the party between the different lands of Prismeer but they’re a little weird. There’s a scarecrow, an oilcan, and a dandelion (meant to reference the Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz). They aren’t so much guides as plot devices, they’re easy to miss if the party doesn’t go to specific areas, and I wasn’t thrilled with using a scarecrow described as being brought to life when the one of the hags imbued it with the “tormented soul” of a child.

So I exchanged three Wizard of Oz references for an Alice In Wonderland reference. Alice was enigmatic at first. Clearly knew more than she was letting on, seemed a bit mischievous, and had very vague abilities. I wanted her to be somewhat like the Cheshire Cat. She gave Elora a set of rules to play with. 

Rules are made to be bent, not broken. 

A promise made is a promise kept.

The price is in the paying, not the sum. 

The intended meaning of these would be found out later, but the first means there are no concrete rules to how things in Prismeer work unless you’re really testing the limits of that, and then you will get pushback. The second means that making a promise is equal to keeping it, if you promise someone something, it’s expected you’ll follow through. The third means that in rules of trade, as long as you’re offering something, you’re paying - monetary value doesn’t matter. 

This was kind of my replacement for the Rules of Conduct in the book which are rules Zybilna set in place and apparently enforces with some pretty twisted punishment. Like binding a thief’s scarf to his neck and then hanging him from a tree as tall as a skyscraper in undying agony for eternity. 

We will get to my Zybilna rewrites. 

Alice offered this advice, then led Elora to the rest of the party and promptly vanished into thin air. We’ll see more of her later.

The party soon found more harengons! Brigands working under the aforementioned guy who was hanged from a tree, Agdon Longscarf. The party talked and intimidated their way out of a fight and sent the brigands packing. That’s fine, there are other encounters out there.

The First and Last Random Encounter

I love random encounter tables. 

I hate running random encounters. 

My dislike comes from preparing random encounters, balancing enemies, setting up maps, and doing tons of preparation just on the off chance that maybe the party runs into that particular thing. Well, they did this time. Mud mephits. Combat went well, but it was slow as every 5e combat is, and it usually boils down to just shouting numbers at each other. 

That’s my biggest criticism with 5th edition - and yes internet, I’m aware that other games exist. Believe me, everyone who has ever dared mention D&D on the internet has been inundated with replies about how this other system is way better and far less problematic and we should really stop playing D&D because there are better games out there if we just give them a chance. I KNOW. But my 41 year old brain knows 5th edition, likes 5th edition, and isn’t likely to pick up on a new game that easily. 

What was I saying? Oh yeah, combat in D&D sucks. And I think that’s partly a scaling issue, because the more players and enemies you have the more rounds you have, and there’s not a lot of room for roleplaying while you’re trying to figure out how many d6s to roll.

But that encounter had Elora pouring an alchemy jug full of salt water onto the mud mephits to see what would happen. Because alchemist. Hmm…idea brewing. 

Early to Rise

Chapter 2 was also when Early’s player was finally able to join the game. I caught her up beforehand by running through an abbreviated version of Chapter 1 from Early’s perspective in a way that would fit with the events the rest of the party went through, but let the two stories happen in parallel without Early meeting the others until Chapter 2. No retcons for me. 

Yet. 

Early also went through the mirror portal but ended up several feet in the air. She used Featherfall to save herself, but ended up stuck in a tree dangling only inches off the ground but unable to break free. She doesn’t know how long she was like that - could be minutes, could be years. She’s the one with no sense of time. 

The party freed her, and she fit right in after they learned she was from the Magewood Academy too and was on the same quest. 

Shortly after, wells all around Hither began to erupt like geysers and the swamp-like terrain started to flood. Luckily for the party, a mobile inn happened to pass by. Oh, that’s pretty cool. What does this thing look like? How does it move about? 

*checks the book*

It’s a building that moves around on legs in the middle of a swamp. 

Wild Beyond the Witchlight writers, I know y’all read stories, you reference quite a few. Did you deliberately make an inn that would evoke images of Baba Yaga? 

So I described that horror show and somehow the players trusted that enough to get a decent night’s rest at the inn while they waited for the flood waters to recede. The innkeeper, Tsu, is an elderly druid who wants to see Zybilna return to power. 

During this downtime, Elora finally read her letter. It confirmed her worst fears - Ana had died on a mission to Falcon Hollow. This confused the players because that was an arc in Royal Flush. Ana was captured, her old teacher helped them rescue her, and everyone made it out alive. That was a couple of weeks ago in game time. Well, clearly the letter was mistaken. But, that was out of character knowledge. In character, everyone found out that Elora’s sister had just died. 

Fun Wacky Adventure Time In the Feywild! Also, Dead Siblings

Okay, so this was going to be a tough balancing act both for me and for the players. One party member is a teenager dealing with a very personal loss and she’s meant to carry on and have zany adventures and save a whole other realm. She should be curled up in a ball and crying for the rest of the game. How do you navigate around that?

Well, with friends. She’s got four friends to check on her and help her power through - one of them is a cleric with a unique perspective on death. But also, the show must go on, and K knew that, so they played Elora as kind of putting off her grief until the job was done. 

The party also got a delivery while at the inn - a gift from Titania, the Summer Queen. See, they helped one of her knights early on in Hither, and she rewarded them with a tiny acorn house. By speaking her name, they would be shrunk down and transported inside where they could take a long rest anywhere. This was an item I found in Through the Veil: Treasures of the Feywild, a book of fey-themed items recommended by a friend.

And hey, it meant I didn’t have to roll for random encounters during long rests. 

Rhin also had a dream during the night. In it, she’s witnessing a funeral she saw in her youth. A widower offered prayers to the earth to accept their beloved. Rhin also saw an elven woman dressed all in black sitting on a bench beckoning her to sit with her. The woman pointed out various other funerals happening and the ways the people conducted the ceremonies. Some were sad, some joyous, some angry, some religious. 

The woman said there was beauty in all things, even death. A skilled artist could work with the colors of death and mourning. She encouraged Rhin to recover what she lost, and as she walked away, Rhin saw that the woman’s cloak was made of raven feathers.

I’ve used dreams twice in this chapter to convey things. I know people have mixed feelings on that as a writing tool, but the nature of the things that were taken from the player characters is very personal - something they couldn’t really get clues to from other people. So, when Rhin found out her missing thing was in Hither, she got a dream or vision from the goddess of death telling her to meditate on what was missing and find it. 

Each player character would experience one or more of these dreams, and some of them delve into light horror. I really wanted the missing things to be large parts of the story that drove the player characters forward and redefined them when they got them back. 

But, that’s enough for one part. Next time, more chapter 2, more harengons, some frogs, and the first hag.